Research dossier - get in!

I've just submitted the online version of my research dossier: 21,830 words spread over 105 double-spaced pages. All that remains is to hand in a hard copy of the dossier to the administration office at Screen Academy Scotland tomorrow. That's got an extra five pages of photographs and sketches, but is otherwise exactly the same as the dossier I've just submitted online. No idea if what I've done is any good, but I think it ticks all the necessary boxes to secure a passing grade for the module. I got a P5 for my research agenda back in March [and does that seem a loooooong time ago now], so hopefully this will achieve the necessary for me.

Phew!

Now, back to rewriting Taking Liberties, giving Danny's Toys a last polish and various other bits and bobs.

It's my instinction, it's my in-stinc-tion!

The cat's finally out of the bag: Severance screenwriter James Moran is scripting episodes for the forthcoming series of Doctor Who and Torchwood. Let's ignore the long, hard years of study and toil, rejection and bitter disappointments that James had to suffer through to reach this point. Let's ignore his undoubted talent or his unstinting efforts to help other writers. Let's just focus on the obvious fact, the one thing every green-with-envy blogging would-be screenwriter is thinking today: James Moran is a jammy bastard, and we all hate him a lot. Not really, but you know what I mean. Congratulations, James. No pressure, we just expect greatness.

Moving on. Paul McCartney's entire post-Beatles back catalogue is now available on iTunes. Guess what's the most popular download so far? Ebony and Ivory. Ebony and bloody Ivory. Messiah on a motorcycle, that's like saying the best thing David Bowie ever released was The Laughing Gnome [he's from gnome-man's-land, you know]. Second choice? I'm Partial to your Abracadabra. Hello? People, come on, you can do better than this, surely. That's a great song, but not so much with the McCartney cover version. At least Maybe I'm Amazed is currently in the bronze medal position. This is a genuinely great track, IMHO. An editor of 2000 AD ocne told me about listening to it non-stop for hours on end while blind drunk. Hmm, maybe it's not that good, but it's better than Ebony and bloody Ivory. Rant over.

Lots of debate on other screenwriting blogs about the merits of talent over training. It's the old nature versus nurture debate, recast for people all too familiar with Final Draft. Personally, I think everybody's got good stories inside them, but not everyone has the knack of telling those stories in an entertaining way, let alone the drive to learn how to hone that knack and those stories. All the training in the world won't make you a great writer. It can make you wonderfully competent, you can achieve no small measure of success without having ann significant natural talent.

But I do believe there's an instinct for storytelling choices and an inbuilt well of imagination that can't be endowed by training, workshops or MA courses. That old cliche about everybody having one book in them? It's probably true. Let's tweak that to say everybody's got one story inside them. Give them craft skills and they'll be able to tell that story in a competent fashion. But have they got access to that place inside the mind where ideas and stories collide to create something fresh and new and entertaining? Probably not.

I've spent the past two years grabbing every learning opportunity I could: an MA screenwriting course; workshops; writing labs; short course; long courses; mentoring schemes. You name it, I've probably had a go or applied for it. Has all of that training made me a better writer? I'd like to think so. Grud knows, I cringe with embarrassment at reading things I wrote a few months ago, seeing all the flaws in what I was doing. Hopefully I'm learning from those mistakes.

But some of my best writing still comes from instinctive choices, moments when I stop thinking about the craft of writing, stop over-analysing my storytelling options and just let myself write. Sometimes, I need to get out of my own way, let the story flow and worry about ironing out the rough spots later. Inspiration's a precious thing, and I find it all too easy to crash those moments with theories and sequence charts and pinboards and the art and science of screenwriting. Sometimes, all the craft in the world can't help if you're writing a story that isn't worth telling. You've got to recognise that, realise you're simply polishing a turd.

Workload d'jour: back to my research dossier this morning, before a fresh spit and polish for my TV pilot Taking Liberties. Need to wrap both these up for delivery to various folk in Edinburgh tomorrow. Once that's done, I can go pick up the tickets for my holiday - five days and counting. Nearly there, nearly there now.

Six days until I'm on holiday

Next Tuesday I'm flying to Malta [well, the pilot'll flying the plane, I'll be sat several thousand rows behind him reading a trashy magazine] en route to the nearby island of Gozo, where I'll spend a week relaxing. First holiday for a year and much needed. Of course, the trade-off for going on holiday is having to work twice as hard for a week before leaving and twice as hard for the week afterwards catching up. By my calculation that means doing four weeks' work in two to take one off - that can't be right, can it? But that's how it feels when you sense all those deadlines looming.

Friday is delivery day for research dossiers on our Research Methods module at Screen Academy Scotland. This requires academic skills and methods that don't come naturally to me, not having been steeped in academia before. I took the screenwriting MA course in the belief it would be a vocational course, but this module has different aims. So be it. I've completed the minimum requirement of twenty-five bibliographical annotations [about 6000 words], interviewed and transcribed practitioners that work in areas related to my chosen research topic [another 7500 words], and assembled my illustrative material [500 words]. I still need to write a provisionla essay [not less than 2000 words] that demonstrates how my thoughts on my research project have developed, and a brief discussion [another 500 words] on plans for future research. Plus I need to distill all my research into useful notes for future reference.

What else? Got a 1200 word article for Death Ray magazine to deliver. [Is it Death Ray? DeathRay? Or Deathray? Still not sure.] Got a Phantom script to tweak this morning. Got my TV pilot to polish. Lots of tweaks and improvements to be made there, following the fistfuls of feedback I got from various people [thanks Lucy, Jason, Dom, Andreas, Pete, Will and anyone else who's name I've forgotten - splendid chaps, all of them]. Reader reports ranged from 'couldn't put it down' to 'quick, relatively, relatively painless'. If nothing else, my five minutes into the future thriller rattles along at a good pace and scenes don't outstay their welcome. Aces.

What else? Loads of parcels to be posted for my previous eBay auction and packaging of the lots in my current auctions to be done. More than a hundred people are watching my current auctions and thirty people have already made bids - but I need more. Holidays don't pay for themselves, alas. So, if you've ever wanted to own a near complete set of the Judge Dredd Megazine [251 of the first 252 issues], or wanted to read the first 36 pre-ban issues of Action or wanted to savour the early works of Garth Ennis, Mark Millar and Sean Phillips in Crisis, now's your chance.

Elvis and K9, leave Princess Leia alone!

Across the Atlantic, Star Wards celebrated its 30th anniversary at the weekend. to mark the event, there was a photoshoot featured massed ranks of women dressed as Princess Leia when she's been enslaved by Jabba the Hut and forced to wear a gold bikini. As you do. Here's the evidence...Things get a little weirder when Stormtrooper Elvis joins in...All hell breaks loose when Doctor's faithful robot dog K-9 gets in on the action. Insert your own puns here, please...

Do your own smalls, Spidey!

Nobody ever claimed American superhero comics were any kind of bastion for modern thinking or pro-feminist attitudes. You need only look at the heaving bosoms and skintight costumes [what there is of them] on most US superheroines to know the comics are aimed squarely at teenage boys with raging hormones, active fantasy lives and plenty of spare change. Getcha getcha ya-yas here, etc. But Marvel Comcis wasn't ready for the hoo-haa that's arisen over a new statue of Spiderman's girlfriend Mary Jane. Here's a picture:
Yes, she's bent over a bowl, washing his crimefighting costume by hand. Her jeans are falling off her arse. And she's grinning. How many people grin like that? Ever? Let alone while trying to erase the skidmarks from their boyfriend's smalls because he's just had a close encounter with Doctor Octopus or the Green Goblin? It's the subservient nature of her pose that's provoked no small amount of ire. She's not barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen [what an action figure that would make], but it all seems a bit... dubious to some people. Here's a front view of Mary Jane, just in case you're savouring the full wonder of this statue yet.
There's been no end of debate online about this, with Marvel bosses and the artist on whose sketch the statue's based declaring themselves non-plussed by the controversy. They're saying it was simply a bit of fun, not meant to suggest Mary-Jane is subjecting herself to the wishes of her boyfriend like some 1950s housewife. Perhaps they're right - how many 1950s housewives wore jeans or a t-shirt like that? Happily, some people have retained their sense of humour in the midst of all this, as evidenced by this cartoon by an artist called J-Bone. Wash your smalls, Spidey!

UK TV = cops & docs. US TV = cop, docs & more

American scribe Clark Perry has a fascinating series of posts on his blog from a TV writing seminar in Los Angeles called Breaking Into the Box. I highly recommend giving them a read if you've any enthuiasm for TV drama [particularly American TV drama, the entries are full of illuminating thoughts from key players on the best US shows. One particular comment leapt out at me. It was made by Lucia Cottone, vice president for series development and current programming at Lifetime TV.

You've traditionally got four show templates: cop, doctor, lawyer, and family shows. It's getting harder to come up with a new take on them. Nets are looking for shows with close-ended storylines and somewhat heroic characters.

In the UK, there are two precincts that dominate British drama series - cops and docs. I've always through the situation was much the same across the Atlantic; certainly some of the best and/or most popular American dramas fall in either of those categories. For docs, see Grey's Anatomy, House, ER and many others. Cops is even more dominant at present: CSI, The Shield, Law & Order, The Wire and many others. You could argue that lawyer-based dramas are an extension of the cops precinct, but they tend to have their own, unique tropes and tales to tell. British TV has its lawyer-based drama series [e.g. New Street Law], but it's not much in vogue.

It's the family drama that particularly separates US and UK TV. I'm not talking about dramas that can attract the whole family for a shared viewing experience [like Doctor Who now does], but returning drama series about families. Families are more often the precinct for sitcoms than drama in Britain. UK family dramas do exist: witness the success of Wild at Heart [one of 2006's highest rated series and soon to be launched in an American incarnation]; other recent examples include Down to Earth; At Home With the Braithwaites; and, arguable, The Chase.

Come to think of it [you can tell I'm thinking this through as I type, can't you?], the family is a distinct British drama precinct - but the results are most often written by women and aimed at a predominantly female audience. Look at series created by Kay Mellor: The Chase, Fat Friends, Playing the Field - all based around families, be they literal, biological families, or the broader families we create in our daily lives. What about series created by Sally Wainwright? The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, At Home With the Braithwaites - ordinary families put under pressure by extraordinary circumstances.

Now, those shows may not be your bag, but they've all earned a devoted audience and all [bar Mrs Pritchard, to date] had multiple series commissioned. Is British television guilty of labelling family drama as women's drama? Ashley Pharoah may be best known right now for co-creating Life on Mars, but he's devised a long list of successful family dramas: Wild at Heart, Down to Earth, Paradise Heights. [He also devised the long-running family/docs hybrid, Where the Heart Is.] These series don't win many awards or a lot of critical kudos, but they've often much loved by audiences.

Just because a show is a family drama, it doesn't have to be cosy, comfortable viewing. One of the best TV series of the past ten years is The Sopranos, and that's all about family - Tony Soprano's biological family and his other Family - the mob. It's the family as metaphor. Wouldn't we all like to see more TV series as good as The Sopranos? I certainly would. Instead of developing the next iteration of cops and docs, perhaps creating a crackling family drama is a better path to success.

All of that's just me typing out loud, asembling my thoughts. I'll be back tomorrow, trying to wrap my head round a concept someone explained to me recently - returning drama series as metaphor.

Writing from the heart, not just the head

Last couple of weeks I'd been having a crisis of confidence about the story I was planning to write as my final project for the MA Screenwriting course. Friday just gone was the deadline to submit our final piece of assessed work for the Script Workshop 2b module. We had to send in either our treatment for a feature [ideally, the feature we plan to write next trimester as our final project], or the first draft script for a television project of our devising. [You could also submit a design for an interactive project, but nobody was planning to do that from among the second year part-time students.] I hadn't been to enough classes this trimester, and hadn't been able to roadtest my proposed feature with the other students or my tutor.

Yes, I'd submitted a synopsis, but that mostly proved how much work I still had to do on my idea. The past two weeks I've been desperately trying to imrove upon my synopsis and not making much progress. It was getting slicker, the structure was improving with each fresh iteration - but that's all head work. My heart wasn't in it, and I certainly wasn't writing a story that I cared much about. The proposed screenplay would have been an exercise in writing for a specific genre, not telling a story about which I cared passionately. No doubt there'll be times in my career when I don't have a choice in the matter, but in this case I do.

One of my reasons for undertaking the MA course was to write projects that didn't need to satisfy strict commerical criteria. I don't expect anything I write for the course ever to be made, but that's not why I'm writing them. I want a portfolio of calling cards that demonstrate my voice, my worldview, the sort of stories I like to tell. Hopefully they'll be distinctive enough to secure representation. I already know I can write genre material, can elaborate and expand upon other people's characters and plots - I've had 18 novels like that published, and a dozen audio dramas. I want to show what I can do, want to write about subjects that excite and interest and concern me. The MA's my best chance to do that right now.

So, after consultation with my tutor, I pulled the plug on my proposed feature. In its place I submitted the TV script I've been developing outside the course. It fits the criteria for submission and it's a story I do care passionately about. Fingers crossed, it'll get a decent mark and nudge me one step closer to an MA. This week I've got to finish off my research dossier for the other module, and submit that online and in person by 3pm on Friday. No shortage of work still to be done on that. Happily, I'm going away on holiday from Tuesday June 5, and grud knows I'll need a holiday by then. It's a year since I had any time off and it's sorely needed.

Setting aside my planned screenplay lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. Learning to identify when a project isn't working is a valuable skill to have, and one I'm slowly but surely developing. However, exercising that skill has created a new problem to resolve once I get back from my holiday: what the hell am I going to write as my final project? No prizes for guessing what'll be exercising my mind while I'm lounging by the pool...

Paul Cornell's Doctor Who: wow

Blimey, that was good. Just watched Human Nature, the first half of a two-part Doctor Who story written by Paul Cornell. It's based on a novel he wrote for Virgin's range of Doctor Who books in the 90s, but updated for the current TV series. Easily the best episode so far of the third series. Thrilling, creepy, touching, scary and a blindingly simple yet blindingly brilliant cliffhanger: top stuff! And there's another episode still to come. Take a bow, Mr Cornell.

Buy my comics past on eBay

With my 2000 AD history tome, THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD, due out next month, I've decided to flog off large portions of my comic collection on eBay. I could do with the space and I could certainly do with the cash. Today I've put ten fresh lots of comics and related material up for auction on eBay. You can see the whole list here [bid now to avoid disappointment], but these are some of the highlights...

251 issues of the Judge Dredd Megazine: a near complete set, with numerous free gifts still attached, enclosed or bagged with the issues. Includes five - yes, FIVE - copies of the very first issue.

A complete set of controversial late 80s comic CRISIS.

The first 68 issues of EAGLE comic from its early 80s revival.

Complete sets of STARLORD, JUDGE DREDD: LAWMAN OF THE FUTURE, TORNADO.

All 36 pre-ban issues of notorious 70s weekly ACTION.

A copy of Martin Barker's brilliant book ACTION: The Story of a Violent Comic, telling the tale of how Action got pulled off sale for being [a] too violent, [b] too anti-authority, or [c] both. The book's been out of print for 15 years and is an amazing look into a crucial period for British comics as censorship trumped creativity.

Swearing about the Royal Bank of Scotland

I'm about to swear about the Royal Bank of Scotland. A lot. All those of a sensitive disposition, look away now.

Move on to another post.

Nothing to see here.


You're still here? Okay, but this is your last chance. I'll even post this cute [but slightly creepy - what's with the glowing red nostrils?] picture of a fluffy kitten to give you time to look away...

The Royal Bank of Scotland sucks cocks in hell. It licks the sweat from a dead man's balls and turns that sweat into a cappucino foam that is piped on top of a steaming pile of yak turds. The Royal Bank of Scotland could die a thousand times and it wouldn't be enough for me right now. The RBS are WANNNNNNNNNNNNKERS.

As you may have surmised, I'm less than impressed with the RBS right now. The cause of my ire? that's simple enough. Here in the UK we have what's called a bank holiday on Monday. It does what you'd expect from the name, with banks and other financial institutiions closing for the day. Many offices and workplaces do the same. Time was, most everything was closed. These days? Not so much.

Come Tuesday, two direct debits are due to leave my bank account. Not today, not tomorrow and not on bank holiday Monday either. On fucking Tuesday. Not before.

In its infinite wisdom, the RBS has decided to sneakily deduct the money from my account today. Saturday. Three days early. Completely cleaning me out in the process, and unable to withdraw cash. Leaving me with the grand total of... [pauses to empties change from back pocket on to desk and count it] ...six pounds and seventy-five pence to last me until Tuesday. So I'm going to have beg money off my wife until then.

Thank you, Royal Bank of Scotland, for financially emasculating me.

Fuckers.

Storylining for soaps workshop

Spent the past two days at the Script Factory's Storylining for Long Running Television Drama: Soap Story Conference Workshop, led by Yvonne Grace. Snap verdict: it's well worth every penny if you're interested in working on soaps as a writer, script editor or storyliner. Yvonne brings a wealth of experience to the two days, having been a script editor on EastEnders, worked on Coronation Street, produced Holby City and executive produced Crossroads. She's sparky, funny and great out coaxing out good ideas from people. There's a maximum of eight people at the workshop, making it an intimate but enjoyable experience. I was the only male in the room, so there was a refreshing lack of testosterone and aggression.

The workshop started with everybody introducing themselves, their backgrounds, why they were interested in storylining and what they hoped to get out of the two days. Yvonne ran us through the roles of those intimately involved with story and script developments on soaps: the executive producer, the producer, the storyliner, the script editor and the writer. Next we moved on to discussing Harkness Hall, the fictitious soap Yvonne had devised for the workshop.

A week earlier we'd been sent material about the show: a list of sets; a page about the setting, tone and dynamics; and, crucially, character outlines, interrelationships and backstories. Yvonne has suggested ways in which characters might develop and storylines that could generate, but we were encouraged to bring a plethora of possible plots with us to start the workshop. We talked through these, everybody chipping in ideas they'd had. Some made the cut, some didn't.

Our goal was to create storylines for eight episodes of Harkness Hall, devising arcs for each of the seventeen characters. Spread across one wall was a vast empty grid, with all the character names running down the vertical side and eight episodes sprad sideways across the horizontal. Our goal: fill all 136 rectangles with plot points and multiple story beats. We concentrated on the first episode first, working our way down from top to bottom, finding links between characters and forging new dynamics.

Once the first episode had been put in place, storylines were developed across the remaining seven episodes, pushing characters and plots to their logical [and sometimes illogical] conclusions. Ideas came and went, some stories got developed but went nowhere, and characters were summarily culled to allow for changing circumstances. The process of filling the grid went well into day two, requiring stamina and a lot of mental agility. By lunchtime on day two we had blackmail, multiple infidelities, sexual metamorphoses, a wedding, arson, a car crash, death, a funeral, divorce and a kidnapping/siege scenario. Not sure I'd want to live in or near Harkness Hall, but life there would never be dull.

Crucial to this process was spreading our big incidents across all the episodes. Once that was settled, we had to identify our mid-episode commercial break and end of episode cliffhangers. Each episode needed to have a title that helped nail down what was at the heart of the story it was telling. Crucially, we had to identify the A, B and C stories. In some cases episodes had a D, E and even an F story, such was the plethora of incidents and accidents our characters experienced.

Finally, each person had to turn all these story beats, plot points, characters moments and crises into a storyline document for their assigned episode. The key here was finding expressing the emotion of a story beat, how characters react to their situation, how they feel about what's being said and done. You need to be visual and descriptive, exploring the story beats, adding flavour and texture to them: make your storyling juicy and writers will be eager to script it - result: better scripts.

I thoroughly enjoyed the two days. The friendly, positive environment created by Yvonne, the other people on the workshop and our hosts at the Script Factory were a big part of that. But the workshop underlined my enthusiasm for storylining and collaborative writing. I love those moments when somebody suggests something and it sparks half a dozen new, exciting ideas. I love being able to stand back and see the sweep of storyarcs across multiple episodes. It felt like I could see the moments, the transitions, the points where stories needed to be accelerated or teased out. It was fun, and I want more.

Back from That Fancy London

Just staggered back in the door after two intense days on the Scipt Factory's Storylining for Soaps workshop. Forgotten how humid, noisy and smelly central London can be. Jason A and Stuart P, fear not, I think your money has been well spent booking a place on next month's staging of the workshop. Full report to follow, probably tomorrow. Am now going to gibber in a corner after getting at 5 yesterday morning to fly south and waking at 5.30 this morning, thanks to London noise and humidity. Big thanks to Bex for the sleeping quarters. Now, it's gibbering time...

No teenage parties while I'm gone

Off to London for the Script Factory's Storylining for Soaps two-day workshop. Talk amongst yourselves in my absence, and try not to break anything: hearts, minds, furniture. And be careful what you wish for if someone orders French polishing...

Oh, my! A new blog for your reading pleasure

Somebody's launched the Secret Blog of a TV Controller (aged 33 and 3/4). It's a semi-fictionalised account of life inside the TV world bubble, as seen from the POV of a new controller at the BBC. Is it real, or is some mischievous minion poking fun? Try this entry for a fairly representative sample of the fun to be had. English Dave, you have a competitor for my affections!

US writers are doing it for themselves

Variety's announced a new cooperative venture by a dozen noted screenwriters. The company's called 1.3.9 and is designed to give writers more control over the creative process. Usual Suspects scribes Christopher McQuarrie is the public face of 1.3.9, but others involved include The Rookie's John Lee Hancock, Graham Yost [Speed], and Erik Jendresen [Band of Brothers]. The core concept is writers will generate spec scripts for the passion projects of major stars, other members of the company will give notes and 1.3.9 will be on board as a producer when the screenplay if offered to studios.

McQuarrie told Variety the writers would create original scripts at a discount until the film's made. When production starts, the writer get their usual fee, a gross percentage of the profits, creative input and a guarantee they won't be rewritten without their agreement. Besides being cheaper up front, the 1.3.9 deal has the added attraction of having marquee talents already attached to its screenplays. The question is whether writers will turn down lucrative studio jobs to write for next to nothing on projects that have no guarantee of ever getting made.

It's the second writers' cooperative launched in Hollywood this year. TV showrunner John Wells [ER, The West Wing] formed the Writers Co-Op with 19 other scribes, including Scott Frank and David Benioff. That group's focus is reducing the cost of developing material, while 1.3.9 is focused on briging together writers and stars at the start of the process. Directors such as Steven Soderbergh, Sam Mendes and Spike Jonze are also talking about forming a directors' cooperative, echoing the efforts of Coppola, Friedkin and others in the early 1970s.

All of which asks the question: could British writers form their own cooperative? You could argue that London is the equivalent to Los Angeles in terms of its central role to film production in the UK, but many writers live outside the capital. Britain's a much smaller country, you don't have to live in London to make a living. [Indeed, Adrian Mead's running a seminar on June 9th about how to survive as a screenwriter without living in London.] That decentralisation makes it much harder to forge the bonds necessary to make a cooperative work. However, the loose, informal network of UK screenwriting blogs and the recent growth in Power of 3 nodules suggests we might be creeping towards a laid-back, Britain version. What do you think? Could a UK writers' cooperative ever work?

Power of Three people wanted...

Right. I'm close to finishing a draft of my TV pilot script, and feel it could benefit from being seen by a fresh set of eyes [or, ideally, three fresh sets of eyes].

Any volunteers?

Email me here: david at davidbishop dot co dot uk

We can be Heroes [if the BBC pays]

Broadcast reports the BBC has paid more than £400,000 an episode to secure the UK screening rights for the second season of Heroes - despite the fact it hasn't shown the first series yet. This time last year, British channels were off to Los Angeles to buy the hot new shows of the 06-07 US TV season. Channel 4 did well by picking up sudsy newcomer Ugly Betty, but most other buys stiffed badly on American TV, and got quick cancellations. Friday Night Lights survived its first season and got picked up for a second by NBC despite meagre ratings - critical kidus saved its skin. [On this side of the Atlantic it's been buried on ITV4. Shame on you, ITV!]

One show that no British expected to last, let alone be a hit, was Heroes. This ensemble show about ordinary people who discover they have extraordinary abilities was such a lot priority that nobody from the NNC, ITV, Channel 4, Five or Sky bought it. Instead the Sci-Fi Channel picked up the bargain of the year, securing first UK rights. Heroes proved to be the 06-07 zeitgeist smash hit, with the kind of watercooler buzz seen previously on shows like Lost, 24 and The X Files in years gone by.

Once this became apparent, the BBC soon rectified its error by nabbing the terrestrial rights for season one of Heroes. [Sci-Fi isn't available to saps like me who don't have cable, don't have a satellite dish and can't get Freeview.] Sci-Fi's been enjoying bumper ratings with Heroes, and the show will make be on BBC2 this autumn. Rumour has it the channel will be giving it the full promo push, complete with BBC3 documentary spin-off [as seen on hit series like Doctor Who and Torchwood].

Now the BBC has gone the whole hog and bought Heroes season two outright, presumably outpricing Sci-Fi by some distance with its reported £400,000 bid. According to Broadcast, season one will be screened on both BBC2 and BBC3, no doubt running straight off the back of season one. Nice. In the meantime, the final season one episode screened in America last night - and I've heard it was rather good. Now, somebody hurry up and put the whole season on DVD, yes?

Bob Hoskins, get out of my dreams...

...but don't feel obliged to get into my car. [Blame Billy Ocean if that doesn't make much sense.] Normally, I don't remember the dreams I have while sleeping once I wake up. Sometimes a last, lingering image or moment will remain. This morning I dreamt I was walking along a pavement with actor Bob Hoskins, who told me about a comedy he was appearing in. Don't ask me, but I'd already heard about the film, which also had several other noted actors in it. Bob and I both knew the movie wasn't much cop [presumably I need have dreams that feature industry buzz]. Still, Bob remained philosophical about what he was doing: 'Work's work' he said.

Woke up this morning [insert blues guitar refrain here] to discover someone is planning a remake of The Long Good Friday, a film that helped turn Hoskins into the Cockney Jimmy Cagney. [Someone's also remaking Barbarella, but that's another matter.] Can't say I'm looking forward to the remake of TLGF much - remakes of great movies rarely measure up to the original. Remakes of bad or so-so films are another matter; sometimes greatness can be found in the seeds of failure. Don't believe me? Compare Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with its flop source material, Bedtime Story.

Of course, I shouldn't complain about remaking TLGF, since I've already done that in a Doctor Who novel called Amorality Tale. It was set in Shoreditch during the deadly London fog of December 1952 [a real event when thousands of people died in the city in a few days], instead of Docklands in 1980, and it used aliens instead of the IRA as the enemy. But Amorality Tale owed a not insiginificant debt to The Long Good Friday for its inspiration. By the time I'd finished writing the novel, it had moved far, far away from its source material, but the ghost of TLGF's structure lingers.

Not sure why I felt the need to mention any of that.

In other news, the BAFTA TV awards were handed out on Sunday night, creating all sorts of surprises. The fact Doctor Who or Helen Mirren's performance in the last Prime Suspect weren't even nominated had already been mulled over. There was a lot of surprise that zeitgeist hit Life on Mars lost out to Jimmy McGovern's series The Street for best drama series. I loved both shows, but think The Street has more to tell us about where and how we live today. There's a second series in production and I can't wait for it to return.

What else? I'm pure busy, with waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many plates spinning at once, all of them demanding my attention. Had to turn down a £600 job yesterday because I simply don't have the time to make a good enough job of it. I'd rather do the best possible job and prove my worth that way, than grab every piece of work going and satisfy nobody with the over-stretched results. Felt like I should be handing back my freelance writer membership card for turning down work, but there's no need as I don't have one. [I am a member of the Society of Authors, the Crime Writers' Association and a student member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, but that's three other matters and time is pressing.]

What else? My current quintet of eBay comics auctions all reach their climax today, so hurry up and make your bids, or suffer crushing disappointment. Go on, you know you want to. My next batch of house-clearing will probably involve a complete set of pre-ban Action comics, perhaps Martin Barker's seminal book about Action, and a few other treats from my private stash. Slowly but surely, I'm reclaiming my workspace.

DeathRay and the Kiwi cartoon connection

There's a new sci-fi and telefantasy magazine out on the newsstands in Britain called DeathRay. It's the brainchild of Matt Bielby, a wonderfully talented editor with a long list of award-winning magazines to his credit. I first encountered Matt in 1995 when he was launch editor for SFX, a sci-fi magazine that dragged the British genre publications market kicking and screaming towards the new millennium. Twelve years on he's set up his own company, Blackfish Publishing, and DeathRay is its first title.

I heard about DeathRay from John Ainsworth at Big Finish, who sang the praises of an prototype issue he'd seen. As a freelancer, I'm always looking for potential clients and contacts - ideally, people you already know and feel you can trust. Publishing is a surprisingly small world and word of mouth is so important. Treat people with respect and they'll tell others. Much them about and everybody knows about it. Having been impressed with Matt before, I got in touch and offered my services.

Happily, DeathRay was looking for freelance scribes, so I pitched several features and got one accepted. It was a look at the science fiction and fantasy pilots being considered by American networks for the new 2007-2008 season. I did my research, wrote the piece and - hey presto - I'd joined the ranks of contributors to the first issue of DeathRay. But the magazine's editorial team [it's not like Matt does everything himself, there's a whole posse of people putting the magazine together] needed a way to illustrate the article.

US pilots are kept under wraps until they get a decision on being picked up or not. Those thaat get a commission are unveiled in LA this month. Those that don't might turn up on cable TV or DVD eventually. A few will get leaked to places like YouTube. When that happens, it's the kiss of death for the pilot getting an official release. [I believe such a fate befall the TV pilot for Warren Ellis's excellent comic book series Global Frequency, but I could be mistaken.] Finding photos from pilots before they go public isn't easy.

DeathRay asked me for a list of potential illustrators that could create a montage image to accompany my article. Seventeen years of working in comics have their uses, and this was one of them. I suggested a handful of artists I knew could do great work, were reliable and might just be available. Top of the list was Roger Langridge, a expatriate Kiwi like me and a top cartoonist.

Despite the fact we're both from New Zealand, we first met in London during the early 1990s. Roger came to the UK looking for work and I was working at the newly launched Judge Dredd Megazine. Then editor Steve MacManus wanted a one-page comedy strip in the comic, to add a different flavour to its mix of material, and Roger was the perfect choice of artist. Somehow I inveigled my way into the mix and became writer for the strip, despite having no previous experience in scripting comics or comedy.

The result was a quirky little series called The Straitjacket Fits. I quickly discovered writing one-page gag strips wasn't my forte, so persuaded Steve to let me have more and more pages each issue. The story spiralled away into a bizarre exercise in fourth wall demolition and obscure references to New Zealand pop culture. Everything that was good about the strip was due to Roger. His art was stunning, polished and witty - as always. He took my secondhand ideas and brought them to life, adding so much more than I'd ever envisaged. It showed me how little I knew about writing for comics, and how productive the collaboration between writer and artist can be.

Long story short, Roger's gone on to a long and fittingly distinguished career. Happily, DeathRay chose him to illustrate my article. The first issue's now on sale, and Roger's posted the image [see above] up on his blog. Centre of attention is the new remake of The Bionic Woman, starring British actress Michelle Ryan from EastEnders. News from across the Atlantic is that the show's been picked up for a season to launch this autumn.

In the meantime, you could do a lot worse than picking up the first issue of DeathRay. It's chockful of articles, wit and imagination - and a few thousand words from me.

Sopranos season four - many wrong guesses

The third season of The Sopranos was still being broadcast while I was writing my Sopranos programme guide in 2001. Each week I'd get a videotape from America of the latest episode and whip together an analysis of that instalment. The goal was to get the book published before the third season aired in the UK, making my guide seem as prescient as possible. To that end, my editor suggested I include some speculations about what might happen in season four. Looking back now, it's little surprise to see how few things I predicted actually came true. We're still waiting for that Russian in the Pine Barrens to reappear. Just for fun, here are my wild guesses...

Speculations on Season Four

What will happen in Season Four of The Sopranos? God knows creator David Chase and his team are not short of plotlines to explore in the forthcoming 13 episodes. Production of the fourth season is not due to begin until October 2001, so what follows can only be idle speculation. But trying to second-guess what will happen next is part of the fun of The Sopranos.

The first question to contemplate is whether Season Four will be the grand finale of The Sopranos. David Chase and lead actor James Gandolfini are contracted to The Sopranos only up to the end of the fourth season and there has been much speculation about whether the show will be extended. HBO will no doubt be happy to pay handsomely for further episodes. The Sopranos is the subscription channel’s greatest asset and directly responsible for a surge in viewers signing up.

David Chase has said many times in interviews that he does not want his creation to become just another TV zombie, dragging on season after season simply to keep everyone making money. He wants The Sopranos to finish at its peak, an understandable goal. When Season Three began with the best ratings yet for the show, Chase seemed to relent slightly on his edict that there would only be four seasons. So, there’s a glimmer of hope for viewers.

Best guess? Chase will pull the plug after Season Four, deciding that 52 episodes are enough – one for every week of the year. His life-long ambition is to write movies. The success of The Sopranos has brought him much closer to that dream, but that same success is now stopping him making the leap to film. There is no show without David Chase, so Season Four could well be the last hurrah for Tony and family (and Family). Whatever happens, there are a number of lingering plot threads from Season Three which may reappear…

Tony’s tempestuous affair with Mercedes sales rep Gloria Trillo was wrapped up in #38, ‘Amour Fou’ – or was it? Will Gloria return like aggrieved mistress Glenn Close in the film Fatal Attraction? David Chase has professed to a dislike of doing the predicable, so such a development seems unlikely. SPECULATION: Tony has seen the last of Gloria Trillo.

During Season Three Tony’s life and business became increasingly intertwined with members of the Russian Mafia. Slava Malevsky is laundering the vast sums of money Tony is netting from the New Jersey esplanade project. But a shadow has been cast over the relationship by Paulie and Christopher’s bungled efforts to execute Russian hardman Valery. He disappeared after being headshot in the Pine Barrens, seemingly taking Paulie’s car. Valery is a man with a grudge and Tony puts the blame for the cock-up on Paulie. SPECULATION: Valery returns for revenge and the resulting violence sours relations between Tony and the Russian Mafia.

Johnny ‘I don’t stick my beak in’ Sack seems intent on sticking his beak into Soprano Family business. He was acting as mentor to Ralphie before Tony got smart and made Ralphie a captain. In the Season Three finale Johnny starts making nice with Paulie, trying to woo the disaffected captain over to the New York families. There are millions of dollars at stake in the esplanade project and Johnny is intent on getting the biggest slice for NY. SPECULATION: This will be a major plot thread for Season Four. Johnny Sack’s underboss status should protect him from Tony’s wrath, but others will be hurt in the crossfire.

Two characters started making recurring appearances during the third season. State Assemblyman Ronald Zellman is a politician in Tony’s pocket, delivering the esplanade project. Another crony of Tony, Reverend James Jr, popped up twice during Season Three. It seems unlikely he’s just there to add local colour. SPECULATION: Expect more appearances by these characters.

Made man Raymond Curto only showed up in a handful of episodes during Season Three, but he was revealed as a rat for the feds. Can he gather crucial evidence against Tony and the Family? And how many others have been flipped by the Government? SPECULATION: Curto is revealed as a rat and gets a bad case of lead poisoning from a bullet to the back of the head.

Carmela’s parents Hugh and Mary DeAngelis emerged from the shadows after the death of Livia, becoming regular visitors to the Soprano household. Hugh has been diagnosed with the eye disease glaucoma, while Mary seems intent on take’s Livia place as nagging mother. SPECULATION: More medical problems and an untimely death for Hugh, giving Carmela a dilemma about where her mother should live.

The FBI did not have a very successful campaign during Season Three. Elaborate efforts to get a bug into Tony’s house were unwittingly thwarted by Meadow, while the deaths of Pussy, Livia and Richie Aprile rescued Tony from several potential prosecutions. Rat Raymond Curto doesn’t seem to be doing the business and Tony is too smart to fall victim to routine surveillance. A new ploy was introduced during #39 – a female agent has been assigned to becoming Adriana’s new best friend. Will this produce results? SPECULATION: Adriana gets Christopher into trouble with her big mouth, but the FBI still can’t a finger on Teflon-coated Tony.

Artie and Charmaine Bucco split up during Season Three, thanks to Artie’s infatuation with Adriana and his plans to go into business with Tony. Charmaine responded by getting makeover and declaring her independence. SPECULATION: The closer Artie gets to Tony, the worse his life will get. Charmaine will prosper while her estranged husband suffers.

Eugene Pontecorvo was introduced during Season Three – he was the other guy being ‘made’ when Christopher got his button. Eugene is part of Ralphie’s crew and hosted the card game that Jackie Jr tried to rob. He is being established as part of the next generation of gangsters in the Family. SPECULATION: An increased role for Eugene under Ralphie’s tutelage.

Like Paulie, Christopher was becoming disenchanted with Tony’s leadership as the third season ended. Christopher does not know he is in danger from the FBI targeting his fiancé Adriana for close surveillance. The newly made man survived an attempted assassination during Season Two – how will be fare in Season Four? SPECULATION: The wedding of Christopher and Adriana is the mob marriage of the year. But the proud husband spends his honeymoon in jail after being arrested by the FBI for information gleaned from his loose-lipped wife.

Junior spent Season Three under house arrest and fighting cancer. By the end of #39 things were looking up – cancer apparently beaten and the terms of his house arrest relaxed. But his trial on twelve RICO predicates is drawing ever closer. Can he beat the rap? SPECULATION: David Chase has said he doesn’t want to turn the show into a legal drama, so don’t expect to see much courtroom action in Season Four. Junior has buried his differences with Tony – expect him to act as elder statesman and advisor to his nephew.

AJ was the kid going off the rails in Season Three. He lurched from one disaster to the next, got expelled from Verbum Dei and only escaped being banished to military school because of his panic attacks. AJ is not the sharpest tool in the box, so academic excellence seems beyond him and he doesn’t seem tough enough to make it in the Family. So what will happen to Tony’s only son? SPECULATION: The fate of AJ will be a major plotline for Season Four. It’s hard to see a future for the boy beyond entering the Family business. Perhaps he can emulate loveable Bacala, the nicest mobster in the world.

Meadow has a tumultuous year – going to college, losing her virginity with Noah, falling in love with Jackie Jr and then having the brutal reality of mob life shoved in her face. After three years of criticising the mob lifestyle, she tore into Jackie Jr’s sister for lacking loyalty to the Family and discussing business in front of an outsider. Does Meadow consider herself part of the Family? SPECULATION: Meadow will continue her studies at Columbia during Season Four but finds herself drawn ever closer to the arms of the Family business.

Dr Melfi began Season Three still questioning whether she should be treating Tony. The rape and its consequence were a turning point for the character. She could have used Tony as a weapon to gain revenge against her rapist, but instead she reaffirmed her own belief system. SPECULATION: Dr Melfi will continue to treat Tony, sometimes in joint sessions with Carmela. There may even be family therapy sessions involving AJ. Do not expect to see the rapist plotline revived or any romance between Melfi and Tony!

Carmela continued to question the gap between her beliefs and her actions. After being shaken to the core by Dr Krakower’s urgings that she leave Tony, Carmela found another way forward when Father Obosi suggested she live off only the good part of Tony’s nature. As Season Three ended, Carmela was contemplating a career in real estate sales. SPECULATION: Twice Carmela has flirted with the idea of an affair – Season Four may finally see her take the plunge. Certainly she will be trying to extend the boundaries of her independence and reduce her financial dependence on Tony’s blood money.

Last, but not least, what will happen to Tony Soprano? Traditionally mob sagas like The Godfather trilogy and Goodfellas have charted the rise and fall of Mafia men. The leading characters often survive to die of old age, but they always end up living unhappy lives – as if some price has to be paid for their actions. To date The Sopranos has taken a firmly amoral stance, refusing to pass judgements upon the actions of its characters. This doesn’t seem likely to change during Season Four.
SPECULATION: If Tony Soprano dies, the show dies with him. He is the centre of it all, the sun about which the other characters orbit. So don’t expect to see Tony die in a bloody gunfight before the final episode of Season Four, #52. The legal actions against him seem to be on hold, so he will probably be a free man for most of the fourth season. But the threats against him are building up: dissension within his own Family, interference from the New York Families, danger from the Russian Mafia, and constant surveillance by the FBI.

But, as always, the greatest threat to Tony is Tony himself. If he continues to involve himself in dangerous relationships like the affair with Gloria, he risks losing the thing most precious to him: his family. Carmela leaving Tony and taking the children with her would be far more devastating than any bullet or imprisonment. That is also the most fertile ground for a compelling drama show like The Sopranos. In interviews David Chase says he wants to make mini-movies about the conflict between a family and a Family. Expect that to be the major focus of Season Four…

It's the end, but the moment's been prepared for

Turns out yesterday was the last teaching day for my MA Screenwriting course. Typically, I missed the morning session to have a meeting with mentor Adrian Mentor, so that left the afternoon session. Amongst other things we talked about our plans for once we'd handed in our final projects. Some people weren't sure what to do next, others cheerfully admitted they'd done the course mostly for the experience of doing it. Me, I pulled out my five point plan plotting the way forward for the next two years. Sometimes I can't help wondering how thin the line is between driven and too driven. But I figure it's better to make a wholehearted effort than to do something half-cocked, if that isn't too mixed a metaphor.

Adrian had some interesting things to say in the morning. Like the MA course, the mentoring programme is rapidly winding down. I'll feel more than a little bereft when these come to an end. They've taken up a lot of my time since September 2005, and I've made so much progress thanks to the discipline they've forced upon my writing. Sustaining my drive to succeed as a writer will be crucial once I've lost these external imperatives. Two years ago I was making a comfortable living from writing in every sense of the word. Now I'm a lot poorer, but significantly better as a writer. I need to set fresh benchmarks for myself, to ensure I maintain these challenges. The last thing I want to do is slip back into old, lazy habits.

So I'll be maintaining the blog. It started as a journal to chart my progress during the MA course. 909 posts later, it's become part of my daily routine. The blog's put me in touch with many other writers, some starting out like me, others more advanced in their careers. With the loss of my weekly encounters with other students at Screen Academy Scotland, I'll be needing that virtual network of colleagues.

Back to college (I hardly knew ye)

Back to Screen Academy Scotland today for some classtime. Hardly seem to have been there this trimester, what with one thing and another. I went along to the first three weeks of Friday sessions, but things came apart thereafter. Week 4 I stayed home to finish rewriting Fiends of the Rising Sun. Week 5 I was in Norway helping run a comic course for local creators. Week 6 I did make it in, but Week 7 was scrubbed so we could go to Scottish Students on Screen in Glasgow. Week 8 may well have been the last class session I attended, when we had writer-director Annie Griffin as a guest speaker.

Week 9 was lost to the Easter holidays, and then we had two weeks without classes. Week 10 I was in London for the Script Factory's TV Forum. I had a meeting on Week 11 that I hope to talk about publicly soon - but not yet - so that day in class went MIA. Week 12? Bristol for the Comics Expo. Which brings us to this week, Week 13. It's the middle of May and I haven't been in class since March 30. [I'm going to miss Week 14 too, back down to London for the Script Factory's Storyling for Soaps workshop.]

The consequence of all these missed sessions is I'm well behind on my research module and writing the treatment for my final project screenplay. I haven't made the class time to workshop my screenplay idea, though screenwriting James Mavor did give me an hour-long one-on-one session about my initial synopsis that helped a lot. My treatment's due in next Friday, but I've yet to start writing it - instead I spent this week playing catchup on the academically challenging research module.

Elsewhere, the mentoring project I was lucky enough to be chosen for is winding down. I've got my final official session with mentor Adrian Mead this morning, as we chart a course for further development of my TV pilot script and my fledgling career. I'm proud to have gotten my script to its third draft, especially considering the fact I spent the first three months of the nine-month mentorship on a project I decided wasn't working and had to be set aside.

It'll be interesting to hear what Adrian's made of my progress. The pilot script still needs at least two more drafts, but that'll have to wait until the second half of June. Right now, I need to put some work into my MA, otherwise I'm flushing nearly two years of work away. Speaking of which, time to see how far I can get with my step outline before I have to race off to Edinburgh...

The Sopranos essay: Matriarcy Rules

In mob stories, the power structure is almost invariable patriarchal. Men rule the Family and also their own family. In The Godfather trilogy, women are confined to the roles of whores or madonnas. Either, they are sex objects for men to use and abuse, or else they are long suffering mothers who must cook, clean and look after the children, the heirs to the throne. Vito Corleone’s wife fulfils the madonna role. Her only power is unintentional – Michael refuses to have his brother Fredo killed until their mother is dead.

Michael’s wife does not come from the usual Italian stock and does not adhere strictly to the role expected of her by the Family. She divorces Michael, but still returns to him by the final part of the trilogy. Of all the women in The Godfather films, only Connie flexes any real muscle of will. By Part III she is influencing Michael’s decisions and pressing for retribution against the Family’s enemies. Her brother comments on her attitude, suggesting their foes should be more afraid of her than of him.

In Goodfellas, the madonna/whore equation is in full effect. The character played by Lorraine Bracco (who now plays Dr Jennifer Melfi in The Sopranos) comes from outside the Italian tradition and shows some initial spirit. But once she marries Ray Liotta’s character, she is quickly subsumed into the role of mob wife and mother. Mafia stories on film, television and in other media have almost without exception replicated this patriarchal power structure.

On the surface, The Sopranos follows this same structure. At the beginning of Season One, Jackie Aprile is acting boss and all his captains are men. When Jackie dies, Junior becomes the new acting boss – although it is actually Tony who is in control. Tony finally taking the mantle of acting boss after Junior is indicted on federal charges at the end of Season One. Judging by outward appearances, The Sopranos has a patriarchal power structure.

But a small scratch below the surface reveals women as the power behind the throne. Time and again characters comment on the hold mothers have their children in The Sopranos. The scariest mother of them all has to be Livia Soprano. In flashback she is seen threatening to poke young Tony’s eyes out with the fork. She also threatens to smother her own children than shift to Nevada. She constantly talks about infanticide, such as news reports of mothers throwing their babies out of skyscraper windows.

Ostensibly, Livia fulfilled the role of mob wife, bearing Johnny Boy Soprano’s children and raising them. In reality, she controlled her husband. Tony says Livia worn his father down until he was a squeaking little gerbil. She drove away her two daughters, Janice and Barbara. She estranged Carmela from her mother, as Carmela’s mother reveals at Livia’s wake in Season Three.

Only Tony remained to look after his mother in her elder years, tied to her by guilt. He cannot admit hating his own mother, even though he undoubtedly does. He cannot recall a single warm, loving experience involving his mother. Such is Tony’s need for a mother substitute that he becomes infatuated with his therapist. Later, he has an elaborate fantasy about Isabella, a loving, caring mother. He even imagines himself as a baby being nursed by Isabella.

Livia’s power is not just over her own children. Junior goes to her for guidance when he becomes acting boss. He defers to her in making decisions and is led into arranging the attempted hit on his nephew. Livia carefully tells Junior exactly the information necessary to gull him into action on her behalf. She manipulates him while simultaneously maintaining plausible deniability – even to herself. When the hit on Tony goes wrong, she fakes a stroke and senility to escape his wrath. She constantly belittles everyone around her and badmouths those who are not present.

Her daughter Janice is cut from the same cloth. She is a frustrated mother, whose son Hal now lives in Canada. Janice ran away from New Jersey to escape her mother’s power. Janice embraced hippy new age ideals and feminism, but still uses the same ploys as her mother to manipulate and control the men in her life. Janice goads and bullies Tony until she gets her way about Livia’s house. She gets engaged to Richie Aprile and controls him like a puppet. Janice nags him about his lack of power. She allows him to hold a loaded pistol to her head while they have sex, but renders Richie impotent by saying he should be boss.

Just like her mother, she carefully feeds him information about Tony designed to nudge him into whacking her brother. Janice holds all the power, with Richie reduced to the role of worker bee collecting money and goods for the queen bee. Finally, when Richie fights back and punches her in the face, Janice gets a gun and shoots him in the chest. Had she stopped there, you might believe it was an act of self defence by an abused woman. Instead she pauses, takes careful aim and then shots Richie in the head – even though he had already suffered fatal injuries. This was murder, the ultimate act of control.

By comparison, Carmela is more content playing out the role of mob wife. She keeps herself at arm’s length from Tony’s criminal activities. Instead, she uses her power to get what she wants from Tony. Carmela bullies Tony into a getting a vasectomy, then changes her mind. She nags Tony about his mistress until he finally dumps Irina. Carmela controls what happens inside the family home. She even acknowledges the power of motherhood in a conversation with Livia, admitting that she uses it to get what she wants.

Carmela’s daughter Meadow is a matriarch in the making. She knows what she wants and manipulates her parents and others to get it. Facing severe punishment after a teenage party at her grandmother’s house gets out of hand, Meadow suggests her own penance – the loss of her credit card for a fortnight! Upset when she learns a friend is being used for sex by their soccer coach, Meadow lets slip about the relationship to her parents. When your father is Tony Soprano, such a revelation can only lead to one thing.

Meadow immediately berates herself for telling them what’s going on – exactly as her grandmother does after carefully planting information. Even the pilot episode, Meadow is flexing her power. Carmela cancels a skiing trip after catching her daughter trying to sneak out at night. Meadow responds by denigrating and refusing to take part in a traditional mother and daughter trip to New York.

The ultimate example of matriarchal power is Annalisa, who appears in Season Two when Tony visits Italy on business. He finds himself negotiating with a woman boss, a totally alien concept. She explains that all her brothers have been murdered in gang wars and all the other men who could take charge are in prison, thanks to a government campaign against organised crime.

Annalisa says Italian men are in love with their mothers, so they are used to taking orders from women. This realisation enables her to run the Family, as well as her own family. Annalisa uses both sides of the madonna/whore equation to her own advantage. She runs her Family like a mother, but comes on to Tony sexually when they are negotiating business terms. Despite this, she is a loving, caring mother who looks after her children and her senile father.

The Sopranos’ use of powerful matriarchal characters reflects its setting in a post-feminist society. It also goes some way to explaining why the series is so popular with women. The two greatest antecedents to The Sopranos are The Godfather trilogy and Goodfellas. Both of these are nostalgia pieces, set decades before they were made, and both are movies by men, for men, about men. The Sopranos is of its own time, set at the dawn of the new millennium.

The role of women in society has changed and this is reflected in the crucial roles played by women in the show. The programme would be so much less believable if all the women were still content to play the role of submissive wife, mother or whore. Despite what Tony Soprano may want to believe, it’s not 1954 anywhere anymore. Matriarchy rules, okay?

Tag! They're it. Lots of them.

Thanks to the wonderful folk at Talking Pish [helo Tom and Fraser!], I'm now addicted to the marvellous website Pictures of Walls. Here's a classic example of the grafitti featured over five albums on the site.Also well worth a look is Judge a Book by its Cover, as evidenced by this gem [thanks to Bex for the link]: Last but not least, you should be visiting PostSecret, where people send in postcards featuring secrets they can't tell anyone they know.

The Sopranos #02: 46 Long - unseen sequences

The script for each episode of The Sopranos goes through many drafts and revisions before it is filmed. Even when an episode has been shot, scenes may still be shortened or cut completely in the editing process for reasons of pacing or length. Normally this material remains on the cutting room floor, unseen and unknown. However, scripts from films and television shows are becoming increasingly available to a curious public. What follows is an analysis of the second episode's lost scenes.

The script for The Sopranos #02, ’46 Long’, was purchased from a London store that specialises in entertainment media merchandise. Written by series creator David Chase, the script is labelled as the fourth revision, dated June 19, 1998. It notes that the production draft was completed on May 28, 1999, with further revisions on June 11, 15 and 17. The cast list matches that of the broadcast episode, but it notes that Giacomo ‘Jackie’ Aprile was formerly called Pat Aprile. The name Pat also survives in one of the scene descriptions.

Structurally, the script is very similar to the final version screened by HBO in January, 1999. The running order of scenes only differs in a few places. The dialogue is almost a word for word transcription of what was broadcast. However, most scenes were trimmed either at their beginnings or ends in the final show – a process known as topping and tailing. Two scenes were dropped and several were severely truncated.

’46 Long’ begins with Tony and his crew watching TV in the back room at the Bada Bing. In the script it specifies that they watch the popular US talk show Larry King. In the broadcast version, Larry and his show were substituted for a generic talk show and host. Perhaps Larry was unavailable or too expensive. In the script Silvio’s Al Pacino imitation misquotes The Godfather.

Some intriguing dialogue appears in the scripted scene where Tony comes down to breakfast and hears about the teacher’s car being stolen. Tony is unconcerned – he says the insurance company will pay out because the teacher is white. Carmela says Mr Miller’s wife just had twins. She asks Tony to intervene and says the teacher was so nice to AJ when the boy missed a lot of school because of sickness.

The next unseen material appears in the script when Tony calls his mother as she is cooking mushrooms. ‘Always with the mushrooms,’ Tony says to himself. While he waits for her to come back to the phone, Tony berates Christopher for bitching about not being made yet. He says Christopher will not rise up in the world by hanging around with people like Brendan Filone.

When Carmela invites her mother-in-law to live with the rest of the family, the draft version foreshadows a development for much later in Season One. Livia says it’s a very nice offer, but she isn’t an Alzheimer’s case yet. By the end of this season, Livia will be showing Alzheimer’s-like signs of senility.

During Tony’s first session with Dr Melfi, the script has him revealing more about his siblings. He says he has one sister living at an ashram in California, while the other is called Annette and lives in upstate New York husband and four kids. Annette would be renamed Barbara in future episodes. Tony asks for Dr Melfi’s diagnosis of his mother’s condition. The therapist reluctantly suggests Livia is dystymic – incapable of experience joy.

In the draft script, Tony cites two examples of loving, warm experience from his childhood, rather than just the one broadcast. He remembers at age twelve buying his mother the album ‘Smoke On The Water’ when it was obviously a gift for himself. Tony says Livia didn’t get that pissed at all. Melfi presses him for examples of emotional nourishment or support by his mother. Tony replies that old guineas like his mother are not demonstrative.

In the scene where Tony and Junior have a sit-down with Jackie about the raid on Comley Trucking, Tony suggests in the draft script that Junior watch Gone With The Wind on DVD. In the broadcast episode his suggestion is much funnier – Grumpy Old Men. The script has the meeting being watched by two Feds in a surveillance van parked opposite the pork store.

When Tony leaves the meeting he raps on the side of the unmarked vehicle and suggests the Feds are having a mutual masturbation session inside. ‘I saw the van rocking, guys. You having a taffy-pull in there?’ All of this was either never filmed or was cut from the final version. The Feds don’t appear on screen until the funeral scene at the end of #04, ‘Meadowlands’.

When Tony is chastising Christopher and Brendan for not paying their tribute to Junior, the draft script has some heavy-handed dialogue recapping what happened in the first episode. Tony says he has not talked to Jackie about Christopher getting made, because Jackie still remembers the wannabe mobster clipped a guy without permission. ‘The proof is in the pudding’ Christopher replies. Brendan pisses Tony off by joking about Jackie’s illness. In the script Brendan talks about Jackie adopting the waif look. In the broadcast episode, he talks about Jackie becoming the chemo-sabe – a much subtler reference to the effects of cancer treatment.

An entire scene between Livia and her temporary carer Perrilyn appears in the draft script which never made it to broadcast. The pair are finishing lunch and carrying their dishes to the kitchen. Perrilyn tells an anecdote about her grandson which actually brings a small smile to Livia’s lips. Perrilyn washes dishes and Livia dries. The carer suggests they could go for a walk around three o’clock and accidentally calls her Olivia.

That was the name of Perrilyn’s sister, who died as a baby. Livia agrees that some fresh air would be nice. The old woman stops and chooses exactly what she wants to say to Perrilyn. The dialogue does not appear in the script, but the reader infers it must be something very offensive. The draft script cuts to the next scene, when Carmela arrives just as Perrilyn storms out of the house. This is where the broadcast version resumes.

Tony has another session with Dr Melfi after Livia runs down Fanny. In the draft script he says the doctors are being to test Livia for infarc dementia, but no mention of this was made in the final version. Instead Livia would not be tested for dementia until after the attempted hit on Tony. Dr Melfi talks with Tony about depression. In the script, she describes it as anger not acted out and says depression is very common in the elderly. On screen, the scene ends with Melfi talking about senior who are inspired and inspiring.

In the draft script, the scene continues as the session comes to an end. Tony says he received Dr Melfi’s bill in the mail. He pulls out a wad of cash that could choke a horse and starts dropping hundred dollar bills on her desk, which makes the therapist uneasy. She asks if Tony is on a health plan where he could post the money. The monster replies he is covered by the plumbers’ union, but he doesn’t want to submit psychiatrist’s bills. He says cash is better for her anyway and leaves. Dr Melfi gives a false smile and close the door after him.

The scene where Christopher, Adriana, Brendan and his girlfriend stand outside the nightclub runs much longer in the draft script. After Martin Scorcese has gone into the club, Christopher and Brendan get into an argument with the bouncer. Brendan tries to frighten the bouncer by invoking the name of the Sopranos, without success. Brendan starts getting a weapon out of his pocket to attack the bouncer, but is interrupted by his beeper going off.

Once they get inside the club, Christopher and Brendan talk about Junior’s tribute. Brendan shows a poor grasp of the English language in a line which didn’t make it on screen: ‘He’s throwing down the gimlet!’ Brendan probably means gauntlet, since a gimlet is a small boring tool for penetrating wood. Christopher wonders whether the old greats like Charlie Lucky and Neil Dellacrocce felt like this when they were just starting out. Brendan gets almost philosophical in another line cut from this scene. He has heard they are the first generation of Americans who are not going to do as well as their parents.

A classic line of Livia dialogue was lost from the scene where she tries to give her son a vibrating chair. Tony tries to reassure his mother, saying she’s not ready to die. Livia is unimpressed: ‘Listen to him. God speaks right to him.’

There’s a funny sequence involving AJ, which didn’t make it into the final episode. Tony and Carmela have returned from installing Livia at Green Grove. Tony is making lunch when AJ enters from the back of the house carrying a large can of charcoal lighter, some highway flares and a box of wooden matches. Carmela demands to know what he is doing with this highly combustible combination. AJ explains that it is his science project, a volcano. Carmela bans the boy from lighting any fires in the house. Tony offers to cut up some shotgun shells so he and AJ can use the gunpowder from inside. Carmela hands Tony a greeting card from the post. It shows a sad basset hound with the words ‘Missing You’ printed above it. The card is signed from ‘Your friends in the 3rd Federal Judicial District’. Tony smirks.

Last but not least, the draft script has an extended sequence which gives the episode its name. After Tony orders Christopher and Brendan to take the Italian suits back to Comley Trucking, he selects a beautiful blue pinstripe suit for himself. It’s 46 long – his size. Paulie points out that Tony already has a suit exactly like it. Tony notices Pussy admiring the suit, so he finds a pair of metal shears and cut the arms off the suit so it is ruined. Only he gets to wear a beautiful blue pinstripe Brioni suit.

Pimp my prog: I'm flogging comics on eBay

Now that my magnum opus about the history of 2000 AD is going to the printers, I'm trying to reclaim the half of my work space currently occupied by old comics. You guessed it, I'm selling off my collection in lots on eBay. Today I've put up for sale my precious copy of Prog 1 [with original space spinner, though the sellotape has long since perished] in a job lot with 176 other early issues of 2000 AD. Also available for your bidding pleasure is a copy of Battle Picture Weekly #1; the first 43 issues of Battle as a single lot; all 52 issues of Battle published during 1976; and all 53 issues of Battle published in 1977.

Help me reclaim my workspace - and make my bank manager that little bit happier - by putting in a bid for any of these lots. Early issues of Battle tend to sell for a minimum of £2 each these days, so the starting price on my Battle lots is particularly competitive in the circumstances. [Grud knows I spent a lot more collecting them all when I was researching my articles about the history of Battle!] Click the link above to see the page where all my live auctions are displayed. Go now!

Heimlich Manoeuvres in the Dark

Right. Forgive what follows, but I've got an awful lot of plates spinning at the moment and need to find an efficient way of prioritising them. Finished the third draft of my TV pilot script yesterday, and have already gotten feedback on it from my mentor. There's a few lapses into misplaced humour that need stripping out, the openign few pages could do with streamlining and I've still got a lot of work to do between pages 30 and 40, but... it's getting there. There's another draft and lots of polishing to do after that, then it'll be time to seek feedback from elsewhere, get some Power of Three action going.

It's my last month on the mentoring scheme run by the Scottish Book Trust's words@work scheme, and I've gotten a lot out of the experience. I highly recommend applying to any writers based in Scotland who want some help with a particular project they've been nurturing. I'm abandoned a lot of social activities [and earnign opportunities] to get the most from the nine-month mentoring period, but it's been well worth the sacrifice. I'll soon have a TV pilot script I can use as a calling card, along with Danny's Toys and my 10-pager. By the end of the MA screenwriting course I'll have added a 90-page screenplay to my script portfolio.

Best of all, I've got half a dozen ideas for further TV pilots spooling around in my head, waiting for the chance to escape on to a page or computer screen. But for now they'll have to stay where they are in my subconscious, as there are more urgent calls upon my time. I've got to rewrite a Phantom script for Egmont Sweden today, and devise the synopsis for another Phantom tale tomorrow. I've got to continue progressing my research dossier for the research methods module on my MA course - need to nail down another fistful of annotations this week, otherwise I'll have too much to do in the final few days.

I need to write a step outline for my final MA project this week, leaving myself enough time to write a treatment for the same next week. The treatment's due in by Friday, but I'm away down to That Fancy London at dawn on Thursday for the Script Factory's Storylining for Soaps two-day intensive workshop with Yvonne Grace. [I've also got to set some time to prep for the workshop, otherwise I won't be getting the best out of that experience. Gulp.]

The good news is finishing my TV pilot script's third draft gave me a solid writing sample to submit with my application for the BBC Writers' Academy. More than 500 people apply every year for only eight places, so the odds on being selected aren't much better than one in 100. I'd be chuffed if I made it far enough to be shortlisted for interview, so my expectations are low, low and lower on that front. I agonised long and hard about applying: thirteen weeks away in London would be a wrench, and Grud knows how I'd fund it, but selection is the fasttrack to TV writing, so I'd be a fool not to try.

Enough rambling, I've got no shortage of things I need to be progressing. Apologies in advance if blog postings are brief in the coming week or three: it's going to be pedal to the metal from now until June 1st, when the research dossier's due to be handed in. After I'll subside into a state of collapse before going on holiday for a week. Sleep may be possible in the future. I'm scheduling time for that on June 5th.

Sopranos episode guide #39: Army of One

US Transmission Date: 20 May 2001

Written by: David Chase & Lawrence Konner • Director: John Patterson
Cast: Fairuza Balk (Agent Deborah Ciccerone), Normal Maxwell (FBI Agent), Marc Damon Johnson (Detective Filemon Francis), Danielle Cautella (Mackenzie Trucillo), Melissa Marsala (Kelli Aprile), Patricia Mauceri (Marie), Francis Esemplare (Nucci), Ryan Homchick (Cadet Delaunay), Candy Trabucco (Miss Giaculo), Dick Latessa (Father L’Oiseau), Michael Kenneth Williams (Ray Ray), Monique Lola Berkley (Saleswoman), Lekel Russell (Leena), Geoff Wigdor (Little Bruce), Phil Larocco (Wiseguy), Dino Palermo (Junior’s Friend), Tobin Bell (Major Zwingli).

Storyline: AJ and his friend Egon Kosma hide in the school basement, waiting for the janitor to leave. Egon has to piss, prompting AJ into having a slash too. Afterwards they sneak into an office in search of something. Jackie Jr hides out with a black father and daughter on a housing project. He is introduced to them by a friend in exchange for a pistol. Paulie takes his mother on a tour of Green Grove retirement community. She loves it. Paulie needs to raise $40,000 as a deposit.

Later he meets with Silvio and Ralphie at a dinner. Paulie wants half the proceeds from the robbery of a safe for which he provided the details and codes to Ralphie. Ralphie netted nearly $100,000 from the job. He pretends to get a phone call on his mobile from Tony and uses it as an excuse to leave the meeting without giving Paulie anything. The message was actually a pre-arranged call from Vito Spatafore, who is part of Ralphie’s crew. Tony gets a phone call at home from a desperate Jackie Jr. He wants help. Tony refers him to Ralphie and hangs up.

Ralphie meets with Tony and says there’s another $300,000 coming soon from the esplanade project. Tony says Jackie Jr called, and wants to know what Ralphie is doing about the problem. He defers all decisions and actions to Ralphie but indicates it should be resolved very soon. The principal at AJ’s school invites AJ and Egon to his office. He complements them on both getting 96% for geometry, a subject they both usually fail. The principal claims to have gotten a DNA match to them from the urine the janitor found in the basement. Egon cracks and starts crying. AJ blames Egon for peeing first.

FBI agents meet to discuss the status of their investigation into the Soprano Family. Junior seems to have beaten cancer. The feds decide to try another tactic, using a female agent to get close to Adriana in the hope she’ll divulge Family secrets. A young agent who has only done background checks before is given the job. Jackie Jr goes out for a walk. He is slain by Vito. Tony goes to the office at the Bada Bing. Christopher walks out, still in a huff with Tony. Paulie whines about the money dispute. He demands a sit-down with Ralphie and Tony. Tony gets a tearful phonecall from Carmela.

AJ has been permanently expelled from Verbum Dei. Tony decides his son should go to a military academy. He has brochures for such schools, given to him by Janice. Carmela gets news that Jackie Jr is dead, murdered in a drugs deal gone awry. She goes to comfort Rosalie Aprile. AJ calls Meadow, who tells him the DNA test was a bluff – such results take six weeks. He tells him about the murder of Jackie Jr. Meadow is distraught. Tony discusses Jackie’s death with Dr Melfi. She says he foresaw this day would come. Tony says AJ would never survive if he tried to join the mob.

Tony and Carmela take AJ for an interview at Hudson Military Institute. AJ is appalled to learn the school day runs from 5.30am to 10pm with no television. Major Zwingli tells Tony and Carmela about the school philosophy, which encourages students to become an army on one. That night Tony and Carmela have a screaming match over whether AJ should go to Hudson. Attendance at the funeral home for Jackie Jr is poor. Rosalie bitterly attributes this to it being just two days to Superbowl – the climax of the sports betting season. Janice gives the funeral director Cozzarelli a demo CD of her Christian contemporary music to play. She says the boss of Sony Records is interested. Cozzarelli buries the CD under a pile of paperwork.

Christopher takes Tony to one side and apologises for doubting him about how to handle the Jackie Jr situation. Tony just walks away from him. After seeing Jackie Jr’s body, Carmela relents and decides to try Tony’s suggestion of sending AJ to military school. The sit-down goes badly for Paulie. Tony rules that Ralphie has to pay Paulie only $12,000 of the profits. Paulie is left bitter and stunned – he needed more money to pay for his mother to go to Green Grove.

Adriana makes a new friend while shopping for funeral clothes. FBI Agent Ciccerone succeeds in her assignment, adopting the name Danielle. AJ puts on the military school’s dress uniform at home for his parents. He starts crying because he doesn’t want to go. Finally, it all becomes too much – he has a panic attack and passes out. Like father, like son. Tony tells Dr Melfi that AJ can’t go to military school because of the panic attacks. His son has the same problem as him. Verbum Dei has belatedly admitted AJ had a panic attack during football practice, which was diagnosed as dehydration at the time by the school nurse. Tony is on the verge of tears – how are they going to save AJ?

Cut to Jackie Jr’s coffin being unloaded from a hearse for burial. The police swoop and arrest Christopher and Silvio on gambling-related charges at the graveyard. Paulie runs off so he escapes arrest. Junior and Bacala turn up. When Junior sees the cops, he departs so fast he almost leaves Bacala behind. Afterwards at the Aprile Meadow argues with Jackie Jr’s sister Kelli. Kelli believes Jackie was killed by one of the local mobsters. Meadow hits the vodka and defends her father, saying Tony is not boss of North Jersey. She is stunned Kelli shows no loyalty to the Family and talks about it in front of an outsider.

Nearly everyone gathers at Vesuvio for Jackie Jr’s wake. Paulie leaves when Tony, saying he has to go look after his mother. Tony chats with Junior, who has finally been released from house arrest. Junior’s trial on RICO charges is starting soon. Having survived cancer, Junior decides to enjoy life more. Johnny Sack approaches Paulie outside. Paulie complains about Tony’s ruling and Ralphie’s attitude. Johnny Sack says New York boss Carmine asks after Paulie. Paulie offers his services to Carmine, anytime, for anything.

Junior says an Italian song, ‘Core ‘ngrato’ – ungrateful heart. It brings tears to the eyes of many in the restaurant. Artie stands by his wife Charmaine, but he looks lovingly at Adriana who is with Christopher. Janice is all over Ralphie like a cheap suit. Meadow throws bits of bread at Junior before running out, pursued by Tony. She runs away from him, just managing to cross the road safely in heavy traffic. Tony returns to Vesuvio, where he hugs AJ and Carmela. Junior continues singing…

Deep and Meaningful: Tony has a moment of intense self-loathing and fear when discussing AJ’s fate with Dr Melfi. He says his son has got the same putrid, rotten fucking Soprano gene as himself. Tony is on the verge of tears. He has already said AJ could not survive in the Family business, especially after what happens to Jackie Jr. Tony knows Meadow will be alright – but what future is there for his son?

Bright Lights, Baked Ziti: Paulie’s mother worries when she hears Green Grove has a Parisian night – she doesn’t want to eat snails. The staff assure her that the food will be dishes like coq au vin and blanket of veal. Tony kicks the door off the mini-fridge at the Bada Bing when he finds someone has eaten the Lo Mein (Chinese noodles served in a clinging sauce) he left there for later consumption. Tony, Carmela and AJ have pasta for dinner while Tony looks at brochures on military schools for AJ. Vesuvio serves dinner for Jackie’s wake. Junior complements the gravy. Meadow lops lumps of bread at Junior when he starts singing.

Mobbed Up: Tony compares AJ in dress uniform to Sgt Bilko, the classic US sitcom starring Phil Silvers as a scheming soldier in the army.

How Do You Feel?: Tony feels that he failed Jackie Jr. He tells Dr Melfi that he is not going to make the same mistake with AJ, hence the military school plan. Tony says the most important thing for Meadow is she gets as far away as possible from the Family business.

Sleeping With The Fishes: Jackie Aprile Jr, executed by Vito Spatafore with a single bullet to the back of the head. The funeral home does a great job of reconstructing his face so Jackie can have an open coffin.

Quote/Unquote: Tony offers no sympathy when Jackie Jr asks for help, yet again using his dead father as a reason for special treatment: ‘He’s been dead for two years. As a matter of fact, the expiration date was last week on all your bullshit with that.’ FBI Agent Cubitoso asks Agent Ciccerone how would she like to make a new best friend for the next nine months: ‘Let me put it this way – how big can you make your hair?’ Kelli Aprile correctly guesses the true circumstances of her brother’s murder: ‘He was killed by some fat fuck in see-through socks.’ Junior remembers Jackie Jr as a dumb fuck who nearly drowned in three inches of water. ‘The penguin exhibition,’ Tony says, nodding sadly. Junior celebrates his freedom after getting released from house arrest: ‘I’ve been farting into the same sofa cushion for 18 months.’

Soundtrack: The residents at Green Grove sing Sammy Cahn’s ‘Call Me Irresponsible’. ‘Wonderful Love’ by Creeper Lagoon. Junior sings ‘Core 'ngrato’ at Vesuvio restaurant. During the song the music mutates into a medley of other tracks, including ‘Parlez-moi d'amour’ by Lucienne Boyer and ‘La Enramada-Bolero’ by Los Tres Ases. ‘Wihtout You’ by Angie Stone. ‘Wondering’ by Nathan Wang. Meadow sings a line from ‘Oops I Did It again’ by Britney Spears at the wake. ‘Ambient music track #7 (blur)’ by the Aphex Twin plays over the closing credits.

Surveillance Report: When they first meet to discuss the proceeds of the safe job, Paulie calls Ralphie Richie – but nobody seems to notice. Was this a slip of the tongue by the actor which went unnoticed or an attempt to wind Ralphie up? It has to be asked – what is the significance of Junior seemingly signing in tongues at the end of this episode? His own voice is replacing with three other voices singing in other languages, yet the music is cleverly timed so it appears Junior is lip-synching the words. Is this meant to represent the universal nature of the themes in his song? The global problems of family and the heart? Who knows? Creator David Chase and the rest of the production team. The viewer is just left scratching their head as the season closes with the most oblique moment yet in The Sopranos. This episode drew 9.5 million viewers when it was first broadcast on US television. This is higher than the ratings for Season Two’s finale, but down on the eleven million viewers who tuned into the double-length premiere for Season Three. By way of comparison, The X Files’ finale screened at the same time on the Fox network got 14 million viewers. But only a third of US homes have HBO access, so The Sopranos’ ratings are still very impressive. FBI Agent Ciccerone is played by Fairuza Balk, an actress best known for playing the lead witch in supernatural thriller The Craft and other gothic roles. The role was recast for season four.

The Verdict: ‘We’re starting a new regime around here!’ Jackie Jr meets his inevitable. AJ gets expelled and only just escapes being banished to military school. Tony’s man management techniques leave something to be desired as he alienates both Christopher and Paulie, storing up trouble for the future. Viewers who tune into this episode expecting a traditional season finale neatly tying up long-running plot threads have come to the wrong place. The only things resolved are Jackie Jr’s fate, Junior beating cancer and house arrest. Aside from that, everything else is still up in the air. In fact, this episode sets up several new plot elements. Fairuza makes her debut as an FBI agent assigned to making friends with Adriana, while Johnny Sack starts working on Paulie to have him betray Tony. When creator David Chase began planning Season Three, he asked for the first episode’s broadcast to be pushed back from the usual January slot to March 2001. This extra two months would be spent plotting out both Seasons Three and Four. So this episode is really just the halfway point in a 26-episode run, rather than the expected apocalyptic season finale. On that basis it another strong effort, if not the equal of the two preceding episodes.